television and sexuality - regulation and the politics of taste - 2004 - (Issues in Cultural and Media Studies).pdf

Tv and sexuality pb 7/29/04 8:50 AM Page 1
I S SU E S in CULTURAL and MEDIA STUDIES I S SU E S in CULTURAL and MEDIA STUDIES
SERIES EDITOR: STUART ALLAN
Arthurs
Television and Sexuality Jane Arthurs
Regulation and the Politics of Taste
In recent years there has been a marked increase in both the volume and diversity
of sexual imagery and talk on television, condemned by some as a ‘rising tide of
filth’, celebrated by others as a ‘liberation’ from the regulations of the past.
Television and Sexuality questions both these responses through an examination of
television’s multiple channels and genres, and the wide range of sexual information
and pleasures they book explores the way that sexual citizenship and
sexual consumerism have been defined in the digital era to reveal the underlying
assumptions held by the television industry about the tastes and sexual identities
of its diverse audiences. It draws on the work of key thinkers in cultural and media
studies, as well as feminist and queer theory, to interrogate the political and
cultural significance of these developments.
With topics including the regulation of taste and decency, sex scandals in the
news, the biology of sex in science programmes, and gay, lesbian and postfeminist
identities in ‘quality’ drama, this book is key reading for students in cultural and
media studies and gender studies. Television andSexuality
Jane Arthurs is Head of the School of Cultural Studies at the University of the
West of England, Bristol. Previous publications include work on audience
responses to the film Crash in The Crash Controversy (2001), the edited collection
Crash Cultures (2002) and Women’s Bodies: Discipline and Transgression (1999). Television and
Cover illustration: be
Cover design: Barker/Hilsdon Sexuality
Regulation and the Politics of Taste

ISBN 0-335-20976-9
9 780335 209767
TELEVISION AND SEXUALITY
Regulation and the Politics of Taste
ISSUE